SME resilience: Critical financial planning success factors post-COVID-19

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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial to South Africa’s economy as they provide employment, contribute to development, reduce poverty, and promote entrepreneurship. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted SMEs in the country, posing a threat to their survival. The purpose of the study was to identify the financial planning critical success factors that are essential for SME performance in a post-COVID-19 pandemic environment. The study followed a positivist paradigm, and a quantitative survey approach was employed. South African SMEs across the various sectors of business were targeted to provide a holistic view of the financial planning strategies contributing to performance. A total of 282 questionnaires were completed electronically by the SME owners using Google Forms, which were then analyzed using SPSS and Smart PLS software. The regression model for structural equation modeling revealed a strong and significant link between financial planning and SME performance. Financial planning has a strong, significant positive effect on SME performance, as indicated by the path coefficient (β = 0.227, p = 0.002). The importance of this study lies in its ability to provide valuable insights to businesses regarding financial planning strategies to enhance SME success in a post-COVID-19 environment.

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    • Table 1. Factor loadings, descriptive statistics, normality, and multicollinearity
    • Table 2. Scale reliability and convergence validity analysis
    • Table 3. Fornell-Larcker criterion
    • Table 4. Cross loadings
    • Table 5. Hererotrait-Monotrait ratio
    • Table 6. High-order reliability and validity
    • Table 7. Regression path model
    • Conceptualization
      Avika Maharaj, Mishelle Doorasamy
    • Data curation
      Avika Maharaj
    • Formal Analysis
      Avika Maharaj
    • Investigation
      Avika Maharaj
    • Methodology
      Avika Maharaj
    • Project administration
      Avika Maharaj
    • Validation
      Avika Maharaj
    • Visualization
      Avika Maharaj, Mishelle Doorasamy
    • Writing – original draft
      Avika Maharaj
    • Supervision
      Mishelle Doorasamy
    • Writing – review & editing
      Mishelle Doorasamy